Automaker Honda was granted permission from the CA Department of Motor Vehicles to deploy autonomous vehicles on public roads.
Honda Motor Co Ltd has announced that the California Department of Motor Vehicles has issued it a permit allowing the company to test drive its autonomous vehicles on public roads. According to a report from Reuters, Honda is the tenth company to gain approval for test-driving in the State as of this Friday.
Other companies already approved to test driverless vehicles on California roads include Daimler AG’s Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Nissan Motor Co, and BMW AG. Honda will begin deploying driver assistance systems in its Honda and Acura models, and is poised to test completely autonomous vehicles.
The Japanese company has secured a testing facility to the northeast of San Francisco in Concord, CA. Its autonomous vehicles are tested here before being put out on the road.
California is one of four states that currently allow driverless cars on their roads. They are joined by Michigan, Florida, and Nevada. If you find yourself driving through one of these states, you may have already seen an autonomous vehicle driving past.
Google, another influential player in the development of autonomous vehicles said that the technology to build a fully functioning fleet of driverless cars by 2020. Replacing drivers with robotic drive systems could potentially unclog congested traffic routes, bring greater efficiency to the trucking industry, and will give people extra time to work on their daily commutes.
